Week 1 Tailgating Observations

Cyclonsin

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Can confirm - I was sent to G10 when they said G7 was full. New lot, probably for RVs next year. Crushed asphalt.
I was parked in the first row of G7 and can shed some light on what I saw:

The parking lot attendants told us to set up our gear/tents/tables in the parking spots behind our vehicles. Not the same parking spot, but across the aisle in that spot. They said the aisle was reserved as a walkway, not a driveway. So virtually everyone in at least the first few rows was given 2 spots.

Before they had the need to use G10 as overflow from G7, they were parking coach buses in there. It's my guess that will be its primary purpose.

That said, they definitely scanned my pass upon entry, and leaving seemed to be a relatively well orchestrated dance alternating between 2 lines of cars exiting G7/G10 and 1 from the Haunted Forest. We were all forced to head East, as it should be.
 

Clonefan32

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Or the parking team could hold an easily accessible section in each lot for late arrivals.

I suppose. but keep in mind in many of these sections you are dealing with big donors. They want a designated spot, not a spot at the far end of the lot. I guess I still don't understand what's complicated about this but c'est la vie.
 

Remo Gaggi

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All I know is that Saturday is going to be a major cluster with 100,000 people coming to party, many of them brain-damaged hok fans. Get there early!!
 

Ms3r4ISU

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It amazes me that people who show up 45 minutes to an hour after others complain about getting in right away. There really should be no need for a zipper merge until the first group gets in.
A lot of entitlement in that west line when they open up and the first to arrive are actually let in as they are supposed to with a first come first in policy.

From today's "Updated ISU Football Parking Information" email received at 3:26 pm today:
(Will the guilty parties see themselves here? Ha.)

ISU will host ESPN's College Game Day on Saturday morning. In order to allow all fans the opportunity to attend the show, all parking lots will open at 6 am. Please see below for important parking pass information.
  • Parking in lots A1, A2, A3, A4, B3, B4, B5, B6, C1/C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, G6 & G7 are all first come first served areas. No parking is reserved in any of these lots.
 
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CaptainMorgan

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This is my first year getting season tickets and I got a GA parking pass for this weekend. Anyone have any tips on which lot I wanna try to get into or avoid.
 

Bestaluckcy

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From today's "Updated ISU Football Parking Information" email received at 3:26 pm today:
(Will the guilty parties see themselves here? Ha.)

ISU will host ESPN's College Game Day on Saturday morning. In order to allow all fans the opportunity to attend the show, all parking lots will open at 6 am. Please see below for important parking pass information.
  • Parking in lots A1, A2, A3, A4, B3, B4, B5, B6, C1/C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, G6 & G7 are all first come first served areas. No parking is reserved in any of these lots.

Does anyone else have a problem that the university promotes donations by saying you will get parking privileges, then turns around and says “ oh we just sell parking passes. We don’t feel obligated to give you parking for your purchases.”
 

SEIOWA CLONE

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So I have handicap, supposed to anyway. Bad leg, long story. Got there later than I planned. a little after 12. Tried to pull in, Parking guy says no room left in handicap must go to G5, I say "you going to make me walk from the furthest parking lot with handicap?
To which he told me there are people there giving the handicap people rides to the stadium.
Nothing I can do but do what I was told.
Get to G5 the half dozen guys there say they know nothing about handicap parking nor any rides for handicap people, I explain we were told to come here that a ride would be coming for us and to send it to us. Proceed to park me in the very far end of the lot as far away from stadium as I could be.
We park and sit and wait for over 2 hours and no ride comes.
We walk up to the gate and ask about the rides and were told there is no rides and they have no idea what we are talking about.
We were forced to walk. We walk to the stadium and I see the guy that told us to park in G5 and tell him there is no rides for the handicap people he is sending to G5. He says yes there is and proceeds to argue with me, and then tells me I just didnt wait long enough. I said I waited over 2 hours. He then said its not his problem, its not his job, he doesnt care and if I wanted to complain go try to find his boss.
Now in extreme pain, I finish walking into the stadium and watch the game.
Following the game, again no rides back to the parking lot.
Forced to walk, now in excruciating pain.
upon arriving at G5 notice they are forcing traffic to turn towards University instead of the other way. its a traffic jam, yet very little traffic towards Duff. I said are you forcing people to only turn right, and was told yes.
Get in car, and didnt move for about 2 hours, until they finally started letting people turn towards Duff. Finally the lot started to empty out.
The New parking people are idiots, and should be fired. The entire plan needs to be readdressed.

Not happy about what went on last weekend.

I feel for you, people do not understand how hard it is to go to a game or even just tailgate with a handicapped person.
We also park in the handicap parking, and have done so for a number of years. My guess would be that less than half actually need to park in the lot, but they have a sticker and therefore its their right to park there. But by doing so, that makes people like yourself that truly need to be close to the gate to walk further.

When we entered the lot on Saturday that kid said that "we need to have a windshield ticket hanging from the mirror." I told the kid, "we have the license plate, do not have a sticker, and my daughter is sitting behind me in her wheel chair if you want to look."

They need to enlarge the handicapped parking lot or take half of the high dollar lot to the east,, which is always half empty.
 
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ESciGuy

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G7 was incredibly inefficient. Gaps all over the place. In the past you'd have parking attendants directing you into a spot leaving 4-5 feet or so between vehicles. We had probably 10'+ gaps between cars near us.

Due to kids soccer I'm probably only going to get there 1.5hrs before kick. I just hope I don't get turned away from G7 like many reported this last week.

For anyone that got turned away, what was your backup plan?
Back up plan was to bite the bullet and pay $25 to park in Haunted Forest, only to get really pissed to find all kinds of open spots in G7 two hours later.
 
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thisISnextyear

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From today's "Updated ISU Football Parking Information" email received at 3:26 pm today:
(Will the guilty parties see themselves here? Ha.)

ISU will host ESPN's College Game Day on Saturday morning. In order to allow all fans the opportunity to attend the show, all parking lots will open at 6 am. Please see below for important parking pass information.
  • Parking in lots A1, A2, A3, A4, B3, B4, B5, B6, C1/C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, G6 & G7 are all first come first served areas. No parking is reserved in any of these lots.
But but but look at all of us who haven’t been waiting in the line for an hour and let us in because we should be let in every other car…
I can already hear it from that line from the west on Saturday
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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I feel for you, people do not understand how hard it is to go to a game or even just tailgate with a handicapped person.
We also park in the handicap parking, and have done so for a number of years. My guess would be that less than half actually need to park in the lot, but they have a sticker and therefore its their right to park there. But by doing so, that makes people like yourself that truly need to be close to the gate to walk further.

When we entered the lot on Saturday that kid said that "we need to have a windshield ticket hanging from the mirror." I told the kid, "we have the license plate, do not have a sticker, and my daughter is sitting behind me in her wheel chair if you want to look."

They need to enlarge the handicapped parking lot or take half of the high dollar lot to the east,, which is always half empty.
In the past they have always put overflow handicap parking in S2.
 

SEIOWA CLONE

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In the past they have always put overflow handicap parking in S2.
They moved the handicapped down to S1 a couple of years ago, they have in the past parked overflow in S2, but last weekend they were not doing it that I saw and parked them in either S5 or S6, which they have done in the past.
S2 was half full when we walked into the game about an hour before it started on Saturday.

2 or 3 years ago we got there late, and they parked us North of Hilton. Talk about a pain in the butt when are tickets are on the South side of the stadium.
 

Ms3r4ISU

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But but but look at all of us who haven’t been waiting in the line for an hour and let us in because we should be let in every other car…
I can already hear it from that line from the west on Saturday
AND, those who pull in line and immediately send others from their vehicles to go sit in parking spaces. I can have a generous heart, but the email said open at 6, no spots are reserved.
 

IcSyU

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Honestly they should just charge an extra $5 or $10 more each to be able to get competent people running the parking lots. Would be worth it.
That's not how this works at all. It's a job no one wants to do because you're stuck dealing with a bunch of ******** a good chunk of the day.
 

cstrunk

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That's not how this works at all. It's a job no one wants to do because you're stuck dealing with a bunch of ******** a good chunk of the day.

That's why you charge more for parking to be able to pay people who will handle it properly.

Not a bunch of college freshmen with zero training making $8/hr.
 

I@ST1

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The police and Iowa State are not letting RV’s stage in the C lots tonight. The cops have shown up multiple times and have kicked people out, taken pictures of license plates, and advised the AD will take your parking passes and tickets if you don’t move. About 200 RV’s have already came and gone throughout the day. It’s going to be a mess if they do this for the general lots on Friday night/Saturday AM.
 
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8bitnes

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The police and Iowa State are not letting RV’s stage in the C lots tonight. The cops have shown up multiple times and have kicked people out, taken pictures of license plates, and advised the AD will take your parking passes and tickets if you don’t move. About 200 RV’s have already came and gone throughout the day. It’s going to be a mess if they do this for the general lots on Friday night/Saturday AM.
They being who?
 

8bitnes

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ISU AD and the police. It will be a logistical mess. (Bigger than there already will be).

I thought that's who you meant. So, you want idiots who can't follow rules to take over the parking lot? Sounds like a great idea. Who is checking parking passes the day early? You sounds like you are advocating for a total free for all. I'm sure that would go real well
 

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